001One nation with liberty and justice for all and we'll start with roll call Mike Debbie Sherman Nicole Line McR Thank Tom Forowski. And any amendments to the agenda? I have none unless anybody has others. So I have a motion to add an executive session to discuss a personnel matter related to a leave of absence request. And I'd like to add that number six. All in favor? Yes. Against abstain. Okay. Motion carries. And then we have approval of the minutes. Somebody want to make that motion. I make a motion to approve the board of education minutes from 5923. Any discussion? I have one amendment to make. in the section that deals with policy. I'd like to acknowledge that that we had a first read um for the school activity fund. Anybody else? Any other all in
002favor? I I against abstain shel motion carries. Okay. Audience of citizens. So, we're going to open the floor up to audience of citizens. Um, we have a lot in the agenda tonight. I know you guys all have a lot you want to talk about. Um, so could we just maybe limit it to five minutes if you can um per person. So, just when you come up, state your name so we can put it in the minutes. So, whoever would like to come speak. Is this actually on? Um, my name is Susan Kandic. My son is a student that Dr. Miller publicly called out in his letter on Wednesday to the entire high school community and then again to the entire district on Friday. In his letter to the high school staff, parents, and guardians, he
003stated the way this poem was read was intentionally made into a joke. In his district-wide newsletter, he stated that he felt a true low, that a student made a mockery while reading a melancholy poem and that he felt compelled to echer echo those sentiments to our parents and staff in today's newsletter. What compelled Dr. Miller to fe feel feel the need to shame a student in a public forum. And what was he shaming him for? Dr. Miller's perceived and assumed intentional mockery. Did Dr. Miller even speak to my son and ask him what his intention was? The answer to that is no. If he had spoken to him, he might have learned that my son had no idea he was to read the poem. He would have learned that he was actually still in handcuffs
004and could not even hold the paper or the microphone, making it hard to see the words and judge how loud he was speaking. If he had spoken to him, he would have found out that he he was reading the poem, he realized it was a sad poem and tried to change his voice to put more emotion into it. If he had spoken to my son, he would have known that he did feel bad about how he read it, and he did not intentionally mean to disrespect the poem or the event. But Dr. Miller never spoke to him, never got his side of the story, and callously chose to make his opinion known, not just once, but twice, without any regard for my son. And where did this outrage come from? The poem was read on
005Monday. My son had no idea he had upset anyone until Wednesday, a full 48 hours later. If his actions were so egregious, why wasn't he spoken to on Monday? Why on Wednesday did I receive a phone call from the assistant principal to tell me my son was in her office because his poem reading was blowing up on social media and that he had upset the community so terribly that central office had to get involved. I was told that they were telling him that they had been directed to take away his senior trip, his senior prom, and quite possibly his graduation. One of the teachers who was in also in the office told me that he had told my son he was worried about his lack of empathy. The assistant principal told me she had given
006my son two days to figure out how to make amends to an entire community. My son came home that day inconsolable. This could have gone tragically wrong. What if I had not been able to come home that day? What if he didn't have the love and support from his family? What if he had gotten home, decided he really was the horrible person he had been told he was, and decided to do something tragic? We all know our children's mental health is a serious concern these days, and this was how he was treated. Dr. Miller worries a child might cry if they have to color a Christmas tree at school or see a Santa image on a flyer. but he had no problem publicly shaming a student or asking his administrators to basically throw the book
007at him. Dr. Miller has since removed his comments from the OPS newsletter and sent an apology letter out. In his apology letter, he states that sometimes what we draft as a message comes across differently than what we intend. Is he asking for understanding and forgiveness because he didn't intentionally mean to hurt or embarrass anyone? Did he extend this same courtesy to my son? The answer again is no. So my question to the board, how long do you keep supporting these kinds of behavior? Are there not policies in place for protecting a student's privacy? Did Dr. Miller follow them? Do you approve of his handling of the situation? Dr. Miller will say he did not use names and it was all over social media already. Well, there was only one student reader that day and I
008have yet to find proof of the alleged viral campaign. I'm really hoping that you find his actions abusive and start taking events like this seriously. You say that everything you do is in the best interest of the children. Please prove it for this most certainly was not in the best interest of my son. Anybody else? Christine Bavone, 9 Macintosh Drive. Um, first, as someone who has spoken out numerous times regarding the middle school climate and how vaping was a big issue, I learned today that there was an assembly on it. I checked the MS newsletter and nothing was mentioned. While I'm glad this has finally been addressed, I am not sure why parents were not notified prior to this event. Speaking of events, the superintendent had no problem sharing a high school event districtwide. I
009personally had no idea that there was an issue at the Take a Stand event. I did see the shared school pictures on social media on Monday and that was the end of it. I didn't know until I read the district newsletter on Friday that there was a problem. As I do know the players involved, I was not aware of what happened. This was dealt with privately as it should have. I am shocked at what was shared externally with parents. I did send an email to Dr. Miller regarding this and received a response. There were other parents as well who sent emails, but the responses varied. Some received invitations to meet with him. Some got simple apologies. One response noted that he received kudos for his handling of the situation and shouldn't even have to apologize.
010So, was he sorry or not? Instead of spending taxpayer dollars on hiring a human resources or curriculum consultant, the district should invest in a PR firm. Thank you. Anyone else? Nobody else. Okay. Christy Zawasttowski, 103 Maple Tree Hill Road. It was brought to my attention today that there was a question on a high school English test um that basically called people brainwashed imbeciles, morons. Um the question was basically anybody Well, I can read it. I watched in horror two years ago on January 6th, 2021 as a mob of brainwashed imbeciles blank the reputation of America, an endangered democracy itself so as to overturn an already un already decided election in favor of their egoomanical egomical candidate. We can never recover our long history of the peaceful transfer of power and the stability it stood for.
011Now we get looked down upon by the likes of Russia and China. Way to go morons. So it was brought to my attention today that this was in on an English test at the high school. It was also brought to my attention it was taken care of. The teacher was written up in hopes that maybe they don't return next year because it will be an easy way to wash it away. My question to you all is why are we not putting more focus on our curriculum? Why was this teacher allowed to stray from the curriculum and put such an outrageous question on one of his exams? What was done to this teacher publicly this week? We received an email regarding the child at the high school. Why did not why did we not receive a
012public apology from this teacher? basically calling many members of this community morons. Um, my fear is that this is happening more than we know that these types of one-sided questions. I had the issue last year with my son in middle school. I called the teacher. I spoke with her directly. I let her know that if me or my son know her political stance, she's not properly doing her job. She apologized and we moved on. But to have this come up again, my concern here is the curriculum. Are we keeping a close enough eye? Dr. Miller seems to keep a very close eye on what goes on when it comes to booster club fundraising and everything else. Is he keeping a very close eye on our tests and what these teachers are teaching our children and
013putting on our tests and the message that they're portraying to them? Because it's very concerning to me. That's all I have. Anybody else? Um 584 Chest Hill Road. I just wanted to come because I know I'm not going to be able to be here at the next meeting because of things happening at the high school. Um, I just wanted to know to let you know that I see the high school kids excelling um, in many ways and there may be diverse ways of people teaching. I I don't see that. But I do see when students come into my room, I have students coming in my room that haven't even taken an art course because their schedule doesn't fit it in. but they come in during their open period in my free period and they're making
014some spectacular pieces of art. Um between um Miss Campbell and I or Bethany Campbell and I, we leave our doors open and we we listen to a lot of the students. A lot of the students seem to enjoy their time at Oxford High School and I I I believe I hear a lot of things from the students and yes um there's going to be conflict between some students and some teachers all the time but overall I I think Oxford high Oxford public schools are doing a great thing because I hear it from we just had a senior art show last night. I heard it from one of the grandparents that um there's Oxford school system is is a great school system and and she admires it and she used to be she's a retired teacher
015from Shelton. So I I understand when people have conflicts and everything, but I just want to know let you guys know that our students are excelling in so many different ways. I get excited almost every single day at my job when I see the the kids coming up with these unique ways to um add their own twist to my projects. So I I mean I don't do tell them I tell them how what I would like to see in them and and what I the techniques I would want them to use but there's nothing telling me them that they can't go farther. And I I believe that's in in a lot of areas with with riding. They have the celidor going on up there tonight. They have the coffee house going up there tonight. And
016students a lot of students work very hard to get to where they are. And as a matter of fact, I'm running out of here to go see the baseball game and look at at the softball game because the girls were so excited about it. And and Miss Campbell's from Watertown and I'm from Oxford, so she's rooting for Watertown because her daughter's on it. I'm going to be right there with my Oxford gear on harassing her all the way. Um having a little bit of fun with the kids and they can't wait to see us up there. So I I just want to with with all the differences and I know there's a lot of things going on and I listen to everyone. I just want you to know that the students are still excelling in
017so many ways in our system and I I get it keeps a like a gleam in my eye and a smile on my face when I'm driving to school. And yes, when when turmoil hits and different um conflicts come up, we just I just hope that we can settle it in a in a a fashionable way so our students still get the most out of our educational system. So that's it and thank you. Thanks Pam. Thanks. Anybody else? Okay, we're going to go on to number five. Go. I'm Gina Rivera from 12 Pines Drive. I appreciate what that teacher just said, and I love what that teacher just said. But what she included in her speech was that she gives her students the tools for them to create. That's what a teacher should be doing
018is teaching our kids how to think, not what to think. one last time. Okay, we're going to go on to number five goes in and MS end of the year reports. Who would like to go first? Mr. Hendry. So, you all have a copy of my report. I'm not going to read through this line by line. I've been asked to keep this to under 10 minutes. Uh, I do want to let you know that I based the structure of this report off of the Great Oak Elementary School improvement plan because that's where we put our concerted efforts this year. And I'll spend a little time kind of highlighting five, six areas that we're most proud of for this year. Uh my recommendations for next year, we all know that that's going to be underneath leadership
019to Dr. Miller and the new principal, but my recommendations are in the report. I'll highlight those as well. Um I'm not going to go page by page, data, grid by data grid. So to start off, I um just want to say thank you to the board of education central office for continuing to provide the necessary resources and support for working toward and attaining these goals. Uh what I'd like to highlight or actually talk about first is goal number one which talks about um students uh school improvement plan for um improving student performance. Uh one of the things that I want to point out right up front is we continue to struggle with chronic absenteeism. uh our number last year we had 27% or 27 24 students sorry uh who were chronically absent which means they
020were absent 10% of the time or eight absent 18 absences by the end of the year. Uh we are currently at 20 students. So it has not dropped dramatically. The one thing that I will say is this is last year and this year are the first times in my career that we've never met the goal of less than 5% of chronic absenteeism. Uh a lot of it is and a perfect example of it today is things like the common cold and common illnesses are coming back and people are being very sensitive to the fact that do we come back to school with symptoms? How do we differentiate between some of these illnesses and and COVID etc. It's a challenge uh to get over this hump but I'm very confident based on past experiences 16 other
021years of being less than 5% that we will get back there. uh when we look at uh academic growth and achievement um I just want to point out that um we talked mid year that goes was recognized as a school of distinction which means you have to need to be in the top 10% of elementary schools in the state in a particular category we were a school of distinction in four out of the five p possible categories that was last year what I hope you can glean from the data is is that if you look at our growth and achievement results in reading. You look at the IRA results, uh we're already seeing preliminary results coming in from the ESPback, we are on par with or in better off um as far as growth and
022mastery uh in reading than we were last year. So, I'm just trying to connect some dots that I think that we're on to something with regard to establishing practices, curriculum, uh approaches to teaching and learning that is sustainable across time, across cohorts. And I'm anticipating that math is going to have a similar profile. And I wouldn't be surprised if you are sitting here next year uh talking about the fact that goes uh Oxford public schools uh once again will be recognized in those top 10% categories and receives some accolades as far as schools of distinction. So uh that's as much as I want to say about that. There's a lot of things in the report that I attribute that to and you can read that for yourself. it it uh goes kind of on a
023underneath a a catchphrase of concerted effort equals desired results and we certainly are making concerted efforts on a daily basis and I'm very happy and very proud of our go community uh all stakeholders students staff parents our support system with central office and the board of ed very proud of the work that we've done in order to get to where we're at not that there's not more room for improvement I'm I'm always a believer in continuous improvement but at least we are seeing some of the successes We were hoping to um goal number two talks about um things like early intervention services and how we schedule those types of things. uh you know often times we think about what are the most important parts about education and I always say oh class size is important
024but I also want to emphasize that the support services in early intervention and special education and related services are an equal part to making sure that we're providing students with the access to learning that they need and I want to balance that with the fact that we're also making concerted efforts with regard to enrichment programs we're providing uh at grade level and above grade level um experiences and opportunities for those kids. And it's really trying to take the bell curve of of of our students and trying to make sure that we're providing equal access to learning for all of those students. Um, goal number three, uh, we're making a conser concerted effort with regard to feedback to teachers, whether that's through the teacher evaluation system or whether that's what through what we're calling instructional walkthroughs
025where teachers are going into other teachers classrooms, having conversations about the positive and productive things that they're seeing there, taking it back to their classrooms, and getting a little bit more um consistency with regard to approaches to teaching and learning. and we're focusing that in particular areas depending upon what the identified needs are. So I'll give you an example next year science or reading new reading program. I could see that being uh an area of focus with regard to some of these instructional walkthroughs. Uh communication is important. Uh we utilize the hawk talk and uh contribute to the ops e-news on a weekly basis. Um there's multiple other forms of communication that happen uh throughout the week throughout the month throughout the school year as well. Um and goal number uh five or go goal
026number six sorry um we have firmly established ruler and our PBIS program to support emotional learning and emotional needs for students uh and behavioral needs. Uh I have a a recommendation for next year. There's a program called restorative practices which is focuses on the social elements of of of student uh learning and existence and um learning how to get along. So I I would encourage the district to consider a combination of social, emotional and behavioral types of approaches in order to address those needs. So uh in addition to that for next year we know we're going to have a new reading program that needs to be a focus. We need to give that a lot of uh time and attention. Uh we're in we'll be in year three of a lusted math program. Our results
027came back after year one on that. When you look at usback and I ready very positive we had two school of distinctions based upon math last year. That's phenomenal for for first year implementation. I anticipate the same thing for this year. Uh and again I just think we need to continue to move forward with regard to that implementation. uh continuing the SRBI and data team processes in order to make sure we're meeting the needs of all kids. Uh we implemented a support services model this year so that we could be as efficient and as effective as possible with providing special ed early intervention services. This was year one. It was embraced by staff. When we came back to do the placement process or start the placement process this year, we said all that hard work
028that we put in last spring in order to develop the schedule for this year paid off in dividends because figuring out how to provide most uh effective and efficient services uh was very easy. Uh continue enrichment, continue to maximize feedback to teachers. Uh I already mentioned uh combination of PBIS rule and restorative practices. Uh and one thing that always sits in the back seat some sometimes is you know students come to school sometimes to sit in the desk and read the book and write on the piece of paper and do the math problem. A lot of kids are connected to school for a lot of other reasons. So providing uh opportunities for students in the areas of things like student council, uh town meeting jobs, the arts, uh newspaper club, memory book club, um partnering
029with park and wreck for after school activities. Those things are are are the things that many students are drawn to uh as their number one choice of why why I want to get up and go to school. uh but they're also that complimentary well-rounded approach to education that that that we are providing and should continue to provide and continue to expand. So, um the last one I would just put in there is that um one of the things that I've enjoyed um my time at center school and uh at goes is that we've always subscribed to a culture of what I call collective efficacy, which means we're all on the same page working towards common goals. And the the goal is one, the paths are many and we figure that out and we use a
030collaborative approach and we use a growth mindset in order to achieve that culture of continuous improvement. So that's something that you you don't find it you can't go out and buy it. You can't find it uh on a shelf in a store someplace. It's something that has to be developed over time. And I've been very appreciative to be part of that and I just want to see that continue. Thank you. And did I meet my 10 minutes? Anybody have any questions? Well, it is encouraging to see the growth students. Um so on that I do have a question though. Um so when I looked at the whole school results um and I see that um in reading that um in reading you do have a lot of kids at grade level I think that's great
031and I do see the numbers burning up. One concern that we had in both math and reading, but I'm looking at reading right now is that we still have 28% of the kids that are one to three or more grade levels below. So the first part of the question is um when you look at the results and you look at the curriculum and the pacing models and so forth, pacing guides um the the materials that the kids are being assessed on. um who does the or was a um an alignment done between um the the curriculum, basic guides, etc. and what's been taught at that point in time versus um what they're being tested on. Is that a piece of this or is it um just that we still have that really almost struggling? Yeah.
032Um a couple of things. And I know that I I'll give you the conversation to date and then you know where where it's heading. So when we've looked at early intervention services in reading and math up to now we have to determine do students need grade level support meaning this is what's happening in the classroom at the grade level that's this is the content and if we give them support can we help them um achieve to a higher level. The other question becomes do students have such significant deficits that we need to give them instruction multiple grade levels below. So it's a combination of those things with regard to yes are we aligning with curriculum and and the scope and sequence etc and supporting that or do we need to go back and retach or
033continue to teach uh skill deficits that might have been taught in two or three grade levels lower than that. I know that when we're looking at the SO which I have not been uh wholly involved with one of the conversations is is how do we and they when they looked at that program is what types of intervention services do they have built into that program and then what types of intervention services can support that program uh with its scope and sequence etc. So it's at the forefront of the conversation is what I'd like to is what I would say mean by the science you're reading the [Music] newspapers yourself with um looking at that line. Is that something that we were able to do to look at that test? Because we just received some of
034these results and some of these results are not complete yet. We haven't gotten that far in the analysis and looking at it, but it's definitely uh an area that we're going to explore. Anybody else? Steve mentioning the recommendation. Yeah. So something happens on the playground between between two students and um traditional approaches who did what wrong both wrong punishment done. Restorative practices takes it to another level which says okay something happened that was wrong here what was the what was the cause how could it have been handled better. There's there's kind of a counseling approach with that um where students can discuss their differences um and see if they can't learn from that um through a a less punitive approach. Is that something that you are doing that you haven't done in the past or
035is that I'm sorry Deb. I can't hear you. Is that something that we're not doing or something that you recommend that we do? I think we're doing it. uh across the board, but it's informal. It's there's not common language. There's not common expectations. Some teachers do it more than others. And I just think if we can develop some consistency there, that that would be a good thing. It's a formal approach to um looking at how to approach student um discipline and consequence consequences and get students back to a level where they are um communicating and working collaboratively together again in a positive, healthy way. Um Ellen, who is our sister principal at great at um Oxford Middle School, is a certified trainer in restorative practices and we're looking at potentially rolling it out um next
036year in a in a formal way. Can we defer? There you go. So, started practices basically engages students in work. You work with them instead of doing things to or for them, right? So, they're part of the process. Um, there's like a series of portable questions that you ask each student in the setting. I do it with our students um at the middle school level if they're willing to engage in the conversation. And so basically you get to the the end question which is what do you need to move on and what do you need to do to make this right and then the students can come to a formal agreement about expectations for one another as a starting point to be able to move forward. So it's it's a twist of how we address
037things with students and that they feel more engaged in the process and that they're heard. Um and ultimately that will reduce the number of repetitive behaviors that we see in in classroom. Yeah. And it is a pack. I mean it is I find it to be pretty effective with students and you can bring in like there's all different levels of informal conferencing to formal conferencing where you have um families come in and and meet together as large groups. I just be willing to be active participants. There's all the different levels of it. Anybody else? Yeah, I'm just going to go back. I just want to clarify in my mind. There was a a program of pinning kids or something like that, you know, when they did something wrong and writing their name on it. Is
038has that been disbanded? That was not a practice that goes. That's all I can say. That's good put. That's not that was not something that's taking place at at a school but it is happening. It was earlier than we had stopped at practice. Okay. Because I look at things as you know you know I think I used the analogy day. You know education is like a three-stage rocket. Okay. We got elementary school stage middle school high school. All those pieces in the first stage have to go together with the next stage. So if we're doing something that's to what I think very poor really singling somebody out by labeling them with a pin, you know, stars have been used in the past, all kinds of different things to label somebody. So if if that's happening,
039that's got to cease because I don't think that's a form of good seal. So we have to get on teaching the element the elements of elementary school so that you get a good product. And so I guess I welcome your behavior thing. What just generally then I'll get what kind of behavior problems do you have? You know is it disruptive class? You know what what are the things that you have that they can focus on in the classroom? Are you asking he No, I'm asking. Yeah, Ellen. I'm sorry. Can we have Ellen? Could we Could we They're right up next. They're coming right up. Did they do that during their piece? Okay. And the what you're talking about with the was the clip up clip down. Yeah. It wasn't pinning a student. It was a
040clip up, clip down on a board. Had a teacher's desk without behaviors and that's quicker. Yeah, I've never They're still okay. Anybody else for Mr. Hendershot? As this is um Mr. Hendershot's final official presentation to the board of education, um I I would like to thank Mr. out for his years of service um to the Oxford public schools and and congratulate him on his retirement. Thank you. Thank you very much. Just a couple of quick things. 33 years, 10 as a teacher, 23 as an administrator, 19 of those as an administrator in Oxford. Uh I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here. I wouldn't have spent 19 years if I wasn't proud of the work that we've done during those 19 years. I remember showing up here with that being a gravel driveway. Um I remember Corey
041walking the high school wasn't built yet. So I've seen a lot of progress in this town and sometimes we think the progress isn't fast enough and it may not be fast enough but it is being made and uh I'm was I'm happy to be part of that and I'm actually a resident of Oxford now. So I'm looking forward to the continued progress and I'm very vested in the work that the school system does. So thank you. So on behalf of the board, I just want to say thank you and we wish you the the best and all the best. Okay, I'll see you at the restaurants are down at market 32. Okay, hi everyone. I hope you had a chance to um enjoy the link to the spring edition of the school newspaper that was
042at the beginning of my end of year update. I think it does a nice job showcasing all of the activities and um fun that we do try to have in middle school. Um, so you know, I I'm going to talk about and was asked to talk about not to go over the whole report as you had it and you've read it and you've digested it, just really to talk about what we're most proud of, what our next steps are, and the challenges that we're facing. So, I think one of the things that we're really proud of this year is that we worked in collaboration with the high school, with the board of education, with the curriculum subcommittee to create a new schedule for next year. And, you know, I think we're really proud of the
043fact that it will maximize student growth and achievement. It'll give more opportunities for more students to access unified arts. It'll give more time for all students to access a WIT block. It'll give time for teachers to have built-in meetings to really hone in on common assessments and pacing and their um formative and end of unit assessments. So, I think that that's I'm excited for the possibilities of what that will bring. I'm also really proud of our concerted effort, you know, as Heath calls it. That's one of his heathisms. But our concerted effort at community events. So from our first career day to um the full musical at the high school back on this big beautiful production that happened ongoing collaboration with Quaker Farms students, the younger students, our honor society kids went over there, our
044student council students, our eighth graders, that great community partnership that was built between older students and younger students. new clubs that we started. Our art club had an overwhelming 60 students in it. We had to break it up into a sixth grade art club and then a seventh and eighth grade art club. We started an investment club. We had intramural sports this year. And it's not we're not done yet. We have, you know, um a better, thanks to the PTO, we have a better than ever, we're hoping field day on next Friday, which should be a great community event. We have an outside vendor coming in and they're going to have a combination of physical and like puzzles with the students almost like Survivor if you're a fan and you've ever seen the show which
045I am and so we're looking forward to that and you know bringing back traditions or continuing traditions and starting new traditions. So, we have our eighth grade semiformal. Um, we have lots of field trips happening, lots of uh grade level bonding, and then we're going to have a promotion breakfast that I I heard happened in the past, and we're, you know, we're bringing that back. So, we're really and I know and I acknowledge that one of our challenges still is culture and climate, but in in next year, we want to keep working on that. But I am proud of the efforts that we have made in that area. And then um one of the last things, you know, I'm proud of lots of things, but I'm also proud of the I Ready growth that you'll
046see in both reading and math from the fall to the spring. You can read our overall growth and our growth in areas. Do we still have a ways to go? Yes. But I'm proud of, you know, this being my second year at the middle school from last year to this year, the growth that we have made, just like Keith talked about, um, we do have a challenge with chronic absenteeism and it continues to be a challenge and ours is a little bit different. You know, it's there's there's some school avoidance issues. Um there's very individual and unique family situations and we're trying really hard to work with within that, but that's something that's going to carry over into next year and and we're going to continue to work on how how do we work in
047those with those individual circumstances. And then um there are student needs, there's student mental health needs and there are student behavior needs. And you know, we do acknowledge that and we want to continue next year working with whole school initiatives in terms of promoting what it how words impact each other and how how we can um really work together and continue to work together as a community. We have a grant-f funed social worker that began and it it's been a great, you know, she's been a great sounding board because our current social worker is amazing and but she she's got a lot of work that she needs to do currently with students and this grant-f funed social worker is able to sort of see the bigger picture and help us with programming for next year.
048and she has done that and we're looking at strategic dates where we can get um parental parental support in some of these programs as well because without the support of the parents who have been wonderful um a lot of this doesn't doesn't happen right because we are we do need to have a partnership uh together so you know some of our next steps next year that I talked about already we really want to maximize the new schedule and the opportunities for those electives. We want to continue to work on attendance and we want to continue to work on whole school programming. You know, an initiative that's near and dear to my heart, having been a former English teacher for 16 years is our literacy initiatives. Uh I was able to start a book club with
049students this year and I met them every Tuesday at lunch and I looked forward to that. Um, every week we read nutmeg award-winning books and the students were so fabulous. And when I met with them in the last meeting, I said to them, "Do you think this is something I should continue?" And they said, "Yes." And I said, "Well, what could I do different? We need to read more. We need to set stricter deadlines, Mrs. Olette. We need to have more chapters each week." And I'm just really I'm really proud that of that aspect of building that culture of literacy. And as we reread books, we added more students on to the group. So, um, and with the 0.5 library media specialist, I'm excited for that opportunity to continue to collaborate with someone who who
050literacy is their their main focus. So, I don't know if you have questions for me, Shelley. Um, and you'll know because I asked you and you um so I again just read it that I am very encouraged by the growth that the kids have made in reading but when I look at um the overall just the overall score it's different grade to grade but it's concerning that 39% of the kids are still reading one three or more grade levels below according to the eye results Mhm. Same kind of question is like a two-parter, but um what did you think when you looked at the alignment between what the kids have already been taught and the kinds of things they're asked about and tested on on the I read test and then you know I I
051know you've talked a lot about um what you want to do in the future, but based on your analysis of that within particular specifically So we still have a few kids that have to finish up already. So the results just like heats are preliminary but they're basically where they are. And what I found in reading is that uh the areas offormational text and the area of vocabulary is where our students seem to um show the most need to to grow. um informational text, if they don't see relevance to what they're reading, if the topic isn't something they're interested in, it's very it becomes harder for them. And we know as adults that happens when we're not reading something we're interested in. And when you talk about um some tier three vocabulary that the way you
052become a better reader is if you read. The way you amass a vocabulary is if you read. And so that's why that goal of building this culture of literacy is so important because if we continue to have students continue to read and read more um and be more prolific in their reading, they will increase their vocabulary. We I just met with our SRBI interventionist for reading and we talked about end of year and and though students do do continue to have skill deficit, they are growing. And what she told me is she's encouraged by the growth that they're making. So they may be a couple of grade levels behind, but they're growing. They're they're showing big gains in their growth. And so what I'm hoping is that if we continue to work and keep strengthening
053our SRBI program and our tiered intervention and our work in wit with tier one intervention that we can keep uh closing that gap for those students what town And at this point in time, right start a lot of them are at that grade level better. Mhm. If we were to pull other towns or you don't have the data or the state like would we see that you know 38% of other towns kids are are one to three level I mean that's a good question I don't have data you know I don't have access it's not it's not like ESPback data when you go on and you can see and it's it's whatever the districts that have purchased I already I mean I think it's something we and look into my my own child's district. I
054I have a good relationship with the principal. I could ask that district just for like a little cohort comparison there. Um and I could, you know, I have a couple connections with some districts. I bring belong to a principal group. I can ask that question. I haven't asked it yet. Um but that so many there are variables. We're 408 kids. They might be 650 kids. They might be, you know, 800. It there's a lot of variables, but there might be some some way for us to scratch the surface of that. For me it's about the right whatever it is and you have a secondary tertiary question why is you get into is it aurricul is it a teacher right is it so I'm always looking for that nug says oh we found a best practice
055or two in their town with 80% or higher and the one thing they noticed in both their chains broke was one, two, and three, right? It's hard to reach out. To me, data is a starting point. Open dialogue to try to find that best practice. Yeah. And you know, I wish I think if if I had the panacea for it, you know, um I could bottle it in. So, but I think that that is a good and that's why I really enjoy the principles group that I'm a part of because we do what you're saying not necessarily with the analysis of I Ready, but we take problems of practice and it's varied districts across the state and we talk about how are you how are you handling this? How are you working on this? What
056is your best practice that works? and I have been able to pick up little nuggets as you call them um for our school and and actually I've been able to share little nuggets with other school districts and they've emailed and said, "Oh, wow. This was this was a really great thing that you had suggested." So, and we could we can have a conversation with our representative to see if she can share us with that data to see if we can make a comparison. Anybody else? Vic, do you want to get the answer to your question? No. Anybody else? No, we're good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Sylvia. And we are on motion to enter executive session to discuss a leave of absence request. Okay, that's and invite in Dr. Miller. We're going to invite Dr.
057Miller into that session. Shelley second. All in favor? I opposed. Stained. Hey, we are in executive session. So, do you want us to go out of this into the conference room? We can go into the conference room. Yeah. Uh, the board would like to make a motion to approve the leave of absence request. All in favor? I Oh, wait. Any discussion? All in favor? I uh against opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you everyone. Um, and thank you for your indulgence while we did that. Um, number six is the report of the superintendent, Dr. Miller. Good evening. I'll be rather um quick. This is the the season of what I'd like to call recognitions and celebrations. Last um Wednesday, we had a beautiful ceremony at Oxford High School for the award ceremony and scholarships for the
058uh high school seniors. So, it was a wonderful ceremony that our high school administration and our guidance counselors um put together. Um this past um previous weekend, we had high school students um that attended a music festival in New Jersey and they won several awards there. Um and then actually this um past weekend we had I think it was seven or eight students that were invited to um Westcon to a um honors music celebration and they you know our music program is rather small. We have a smaller high school so they're used to singing in a very small choir. Um this gave them our students an opportunity to perform with large groups of students which is a very different type of experience. Um they got there in the morning. They practiced all all morning, all
059afternoon. Then they performed four songs um to the public in the afternoon. It was a beautiful um performance they did. Um and then um tomorrow night we have our math honors society induction at the high school. And then on Thursday evening is the National Honors Society induction also at Oxford High School. Underway with graduation planning. There is a preliminary meeting with um our chief um operations officer and um the high school administration. walking the the field and take a look at what needs to be done for June 12th. Once again, the rain dated is the 13th. Um, and if it looks like both days are going to be rainy, we'll be planning for an indoor um graduation. Um, with um most likely in the auditorium with a live feed into the gym. Our hope is
060that we're not having any rain the last few years. It's been beautiful outside um and that we won't need to do that. Um this Saturday is um prom. Um and our high school juniors and seniors are um looking forward to that greatly. That's going to be um in um Danbury this year. Last year is in New Haven. It kind of flip back and forth between the two different areas. Um and then um yesterday was um field day of farms and thankful to our parents and our teachers the PTO for putting on a a great fun activity set of activities for our students all day long. We had a great time when they're out there. That's my report. Thank you. Report of the chair or designate. That's me and I have not. So, um, subcommittee reports
061facilities. Joe's not here. Um, there was supposed to be a meeting tonight and it was postponed. Yes. Um, it postponed. Joe was actually at a ceremony for his son. I guess he's been being recognized for his baseball efforts. Um I think I don't have a date of when the next facility subcommittee is going to be meeting. Um but it might be next week and then I think it's curriculum right we met for two hours two and a half hours yesterday. Um we were um given the K5 curriculum pilot um completed by the Quaker Farms and GO staff and I would really like to thank them for the time that they put in. I'd like to thank the staff that was there last night at our meeting that helped answer our numerous questions. But um the
062recommendation from the committee after all of their review and their pilots was to go with the HMH um into reading program and the co it's a five-year program. All the materials and the implementation with the professional development um is a five-year plan and it's the cost is $251,41729. We two 251 41729 um this was the program that the teachers in the um felt worked the best. It gives them um some phonetic um let me get my notes out because I'm going to remember it. Anyway, um there was some phonetic issues um that were brought in. They can do the phonetics. Is that what it was? Phonetics foundations. Um they can continue that um working with that program and and um with this new um reading program. So, this was the recommendation and we need to
063um there's some grant money I believe Dr. Miller that we were going to use. Well, this the state of Connecticut has awarded based upon student population um a set of funds that came out of federal ESER and ARPA funds. Um they have provided Oxford um $54,000 um per for year 1, 54,000 for year two. Um it is a reimbursement type grant. Um we can use it for um the K um five reading program that we're recommending tonight. So that would give us $108,000 that can go towards the investment of the new reading program. Anybody else that was on the committee have anything they want to say? years ago that quite honestly all of them don't work that great getting back more of a traditional approach to reading like teachers went through I think six [Music]
064programs the state of Connecticut require that each district adopt one of six programs they gave districts an option um initially of either applying for a waiver with which had extremely strict um guidelines and they were not too sure at the time what that rubric would look like in fact the district that have applied that they have the state has not actually begun to look at those waiverss yet. Um midway through the process the state said if you're want to adopt but you're not ready to do so next year we'll give you a one-year extension to do that. In this case our um teachers K5 we piloted um three different programs um for approximately five weeks. Um each grade except for one grade um was able to pilot all three programs. each teach one teacher um
065did each of the three and then there's a control group in each grade level. Um and following that pilot the teachers did a analysis of the data um this was um very much teacherdriven u missowski uh Dr. Regodski did the um facilitation of the debrief and the analysis with the teachers. But this process from the decision of which of the six programs to pilot through the pilot and then the analysis of the data, it was driven by what the teachers wanted to do in the process and and and really their voice was heard in the selection itself. One thing you know, one thing I like was the connectivity of that but just the sheer excitement for this long. So that was promising from that. So just some additional information. It was nice to see it
066was nice to see people excited about the program coming in and that they were really part of the entire process. stuff. Yeah, you have programs and gota do this and pick one but it's almost like a mandate this time the feeling of state change was mandating around two hours right and when you take a look at we we had the conversation earlier about where we are with reading and you take a look at the data for ESPback take a look at the data for I ready for both at the elementary school level and at the middle school level when you see those dips there and where students are struggling in in reading our current program has gaps and I'm recommending that we move forward with the program as soon as possible because every year that
067we wait we're we're missing an opportunity and these students are falling further behind and if we look at what where students are struggling at middle school high school level that's because this core foundational skills were we're missed at the elementary school level and if we can adopt this program we're going to be strengthening tier one instruction which will theoretically have a upside side in lowering the students that will need to qualify for SRBI services, potentially special education services and provide not necessarily in two months from now, but it's going to provide long-term benefit to our students. We're going to see more positive results um at the middle school and high school level. The other piece to this is that the HMH program does have a 612 component which we do want to look at next
068year which means that we might be in a position a year from now and be recommended after we do some piloting of implementation of 6 through 12 um ELA in HMH which would give us a K12 program. So there's an alignment there across the board from kindergarten through 12th grade um in English language arts. right? The plan would be to implement the program as it is. There'd be heavy professional level professional learning for our teachers um from day one um with embedded professional learning as DA progresses. Um that would be part of the package that we get from the company. The plan would be for the um teachers next summer to come together, a group of teachers to analyze the work that was done during the year and then string together and actually write the
069curriculum that takes the core elements from the program that we like and then implement it all next year. And as that implementation is is taking place, having conversations with our teachers, what's working, what's not working, where are we seeing struggles, where we seeing positive um outcomes from from these units, and what do we need to change, not only for the upcoming units, but for the units that we just completed so that next year when we do those units, that they're stronger based upon what we know works and what we know doesn't work from um what we just taught our students. So year one would be implementation, year two would be the curriculum writing. Correct. and quickly writing with revision so that year three it's even stronger anybody on board do we need to do a
070motion on that I don't think so the curriculum committee approved the uh moving forward with it um last night so the other thing we talked about um we've been struggling with trying to get um a scope and sequence a scope of work for proposed um curriculum work so we've come up. We have a timeline right now. We're still going to work on trying to backfill for places that we can use our current curriculum and places where we need to rerun the curriculum. Um, and hopefully one of the things that we heard last night is that we don't really have a great binder or index for our curriculum. So, one of the things is we've looked at other districts. One of the districts was Madison. Um, we've looked at New Town. We've looked at Monroe. We've
071looked at other towns that are um doing very well. So we we are going to work on working with the teachers and and the administrators to try and get what we envision as far as the curriculum work kind of put into the right um index that we want with staff has it it meets has all the standards listed so everybody has knows what we're looking for. So we have a lot of work to do. We also need to do a lot with in training for understanding by design if that's the process that we're going to use for um our curriculum writing. So that's one of the other things that we're working on. So we have a lot to do. We have a plan that that finally kind of breaks down each grade level, each content
072area. So, I think that we meet again on June 5th and we continue to work on this timeline and um try and see if we can find we've talked about having a consultant come in and work on the curriculum, but we would really like to include our staff in that process. I think it's really important that they are included in it. Um, but that's where we are right now. We have we have gaps and we are very mindful of that as a committee. We have um we have a plan. We will work continue to move forward with that plan. The other thing that we talked about were the summer packets for Great Oak and um Quaker Farms. We got the reading list and I think that was pretty much the high points of what we
073talked about yesterday. It was a long discussion on the um program. So, and then anybody have any questions? Nope. And then on to policy, Nicole. So, tonight we have a second read regarding school activity funds. Um I went over this with you guys at the last meeting. The big takeaway from this is that we are trying to make sure it's recognized that the money stays in the name of the schools and that any money that's collected goes to the assigned administrator um for their safekeeping at the close of each business day. Um, and we're also looking to the future in the hopes that when we do future um, fundraisers that we can use um, platforms such as my school bucks um, for an online payment platform so we don't have to uh, collect any cash.
074Um, so does anybody have any questions regarding the fund the fundraiser policy school activity funds policy? So hearing none, I would um do a motion to approve the school activities funds policy as written. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Finance, insurance, and personnel. Mike. Okay. Um we just had our finance committee uh meeting today. Uh we went through the May budget. We looked at the retirement incentive package. I don't think it's official uh the numbers, but we have a number of paras and teachers who are looking to take the retirement incentive package. Uh we're very happy that they could participate in it and gain some value. uh we can't do it every year but when it is appropriate and when there is funds in the current year budget we
075like to make the offer and see if we can help parents or pardon me uh the parents and teachers. Uh the status of central office move is moving forward at this time. Uh purchase orders are available and we're working on timing with the Dr. Miller and the facility subcommittee. That'll be a topic for the next uh facilities meeting. Um for the budget update for 2223 um we have a preliminary number is it okay to share at this time of we have a preliminary number of 700,000 surplus for the 2223 budget. Uh this was generated from salary savings when teachers leave. we if we're able to replace them with a a younger teacher or parah uh as well as insurance savings, we're able to generate funds in the amount of around 700,000. Now, anything can happen
076between now and the end of June. Um but that's the number we're looking at. That was insurance as well. Yeah. Because we changed the insurance program. Yes. The bulk of the funds came from the the change in insurance carrier at the beginning of the year. That was a major effort that we took and we saw huge gains from doing so and that was not planned for during the budget season last year that came out because the increase from the state was so high. We we went through and we took a long long look to about a three and a half to four month process and we ended up changing carriers that really benefit us for this year and for next year and that insurance change was approved by all the bargaining units because it lowered
077their expense on insurance and uh it was a win across the board. That's correct. and it maxed out our increase percentage for next year at no higher than an 8.5%. Right now we're in an 8.4% increase for next year. And uh for our our stewardship and trying to, you know, set aside money for unexpected special education costs that could occur for next year. Uh, I believe we're making a we're sending a a message over to the board of finance to see if we can utilize uh carryover fund for around $150,000 um to support that. We don't know where it stands on that or or it will be allowed, but it's in the town charter to allow a carryover of 1 to 2%. This is much lower than 2% of our our budget, but it's something
078that we want to we know that the expense is going to hit us next year. We know there are students that are in the pipeline that are just not approved at this time, but they are working towards getting uh additional services. Um, and we're trying to set money aside for it. But I do have at this time um with our approved budget, we have some budget cuts from the future operating budget. Uh we were cut I believe it was 705,000 in change that we needed to account for in our upcoming operational budget. So, at this time we have um one proposed third grade new teacher that uh we're reducing, one proposed computer science new teacher that we are reducing from the budget. We've lowered our utility expenses and at this time we are reducing the
079number of full-time parah FTEES by 10. And that's the update. Anybody have any questions? Okay, let me let me just state something. Yeah, position. So, the the number arrived in analysis by our special education department based upon the actual services that our students need um based upon their individual IEPs for next year um and based upon the number of pair professionals that would be needed to service those needs per those IEPs. Um so it's based upon a thorough analysis by our administrators in special education on what those needs are and how those students could be grouped together so that the all the needs could continue to be met um for all those students um across the board K12. Okay. Anybody have any questions? Okay. Leaison report the only thing I have PTO meeting is on
080the 25th. Anybody I don't think there's any other Okay. Anybody else have anything? Oh. So motion to adjurnn at 8:10. All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. We're at 810.